Judgment and the Authority Problem

(December 10. 1965)

We
have already discussed the Last Judgment in some, though insufficient
detail. After the Last Judgment, there isn't any more. This is
symbolic only in the sense that everybody is much better off WITHOUT
judgment. When the Bible says "Judge not that ye be not judged" it
merely means that if you judge the reality of others at all, you will be
unable to avoid judging your own. The choice to judge rather than know
has been the cause of the loss of peace. Judgment is the process on
which perception but not cognition rests. We covered this before in
terms of selectivity. Evaluation was said at that time to be its obvious
prerequisite.

Judgment
ALWAYS involves rejection. It is not an ability which emphasizes ONLY
the positive aspects of what is judged, whether it be in or out of the
self. However, what has been perceived and rejected, (or judged and
found wanting) remains in the unconscious because it HAS been perceived.
Watson had a very relevant notion of the unconscious in this connection.
In fact, it was so relevant that he dropped it as officially out of
accord with Behaviorism. He was right on both counts.

One of
the illusions from which human perception suffers is that what it
perceives and judges against has no effect. This cannot be true, unless
man also believes that what his judgment vetoes does not exist. He
evidently does not believe this, or he would not have judged against it.
It does not really matter, in the end, whether you judge right or wrong.
Either way, you are placing your belief in the unreal. This cannot be
avoided in any type of judgment, because it IMPLIES the belief that
reality is yours to choose FROM.

Neither
of you has any idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes
from meeting yourselves and your brothers totally without judgment. If
you will look back at the earlier notes about what you and your brothers
ARE, you will realize that judging them in any way is really without
meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you ARE
judging them. All uncertainty comes from a totally fallacious belief
that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need it to
organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize
yourselves.

When you
look upon knowledge, all judgment is automatically suspended, and this
is the process that enables recognition to REPLACE perception. Man is
very fearful of everything he has perceived and refused to accept. He
believes that because he has refused to accept it, he has lost control
over it. This is why he sees it in nightmares, or in pleasant disguise
in what seems to be happier dreams. Nothing that you have refused to
accept can be brought into awareness. It does NOT follow that it is
dangerous. But it DOES follow that you have made it dangerous.

When you
feel tired, it is merely because you have judged yourself as capable of
being tired. When you laugh at someone it is because you have judged him
as debased. When you laugh at yourself, you are singularly likely to
laugh at others, if only because you cannot tolerate being more debased
THAN others. All of this does make you tired, because it is essentially
disheartening. You are not really capable of being tired, but you are
very capable of wearying yourselves.

The
strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is a curious
thing that any ability which is so debilitating should be so deeply
cherished. But there is a very good reason for this. (This, however,
depends upon what you mean by good.)

If you
wish to be the author of reality, which is totally impossible anyway,
then you will insist on holding on to judgment. You will also use the
term with considerable fear and believe that judgment will someday be
used against you. To whatever extent it IS used against you, it is due
ONLY to your belief in its efficacy as a weapon of defense for your own
authority.

The
issue of authority is really a question of authorship. When an
individual has an "authority problem," it is ALWAYS because he
believes he is the author of himself, and resents his own projection
that you share his delusion in this respect. He then perceives the
situation as one in which two people are literally fighting for his own
authorship. This is the fundamental error of all those who believe they
have usurped the power of God.

The
belief is very frightening to them, but hardly troubles God at all. He
is, however, eager to undo it, not to punish His children, but ONLY
because He knows that it makes them unhappy. Souls were given their own
true authorship, and men preferred to remain anonymous when they chose
to separate themselves FROM their Author. The word "authority" has
been one of their most fearful symbols ever since. Authority has been
used for great cruelty, because, being uncertain of their true
Authorship, men believe that their creation was anonymous. This has left
them in a position where it SOUNDS meaningful to consider the
possibility that they must have created themselves.

The
dispute over authorship has left such uncertainty in the minds of man
that some people have gone so far as to doubt whether they were ever
created at all. Despite the apparent contradiction in this position, it
is in one sense more tenable than the view that they created themselves.
At least, it acknowledged the fact some TRUE authorship is necessary for
existence.

Only
those who give over all desire to reject can KNOW that their own
rejection is impossible. You have not usurped the power of God, but you
HAVE lost it. Fortunately, when you lose something, this does not mean
that the something has gone. It merely means that YOU do not know where
it is. Existence does not depend on your ability to identify it, or even
to place it. It is perfectly possible to look on reality without
judgment, and merely KNOW it is there. By knowing this, you are not
doubting its reality at all.

Peace is
a natural heritage of the Soul. Everyone is free to refuse to accept his
inheritance, but he is NOT free to establish what his inheritance IS.
The problem which everyone MUST decide is the fundamental question of
his own authorship. All fear comes ultimately, and sometimes by way of
very devious routes, from the denial of Authorship. The offense is never
to God, but only to the denier himself. He has thrown away the reason
for his own peace, and sees himself only in pieces. This strange
perception IS an authority problem. It is also the basis for castration
anxiety, since both forms of error are fundamentally the same.

Neither
you nor Bill can find peace while this authority problem continues. But
the truth is still that there IS no problem about this. There is no man
who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. If this has been
the result of his own free will, he must regard his will as if it were
NOT free, or the obviously circular reasoning of his own position would
be quite apparent.

Free
will MUST lead to freedom. Judgment always imprisons, because it
separates segments of reality according to the highly unstable scales of
desire. Wishes are not facts, by definition. To wish is to imply that
willing is not sufficient. However, no one really believes that what is
wished is as real as what is willed. Instead of "seek you first the
Kingdom of Heaven" say "Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," and
you have said "I know what I am, and I will to accept my own
inheritance."